Driving in London

Yesterday...

This is the Dog Car - a 1994 VW Corrado VR6. Although its not something I do very often we took it to London - took a few photos in the city, which is nice on a Sunday as all the workers (like me!) are at home.

It was an absolutely beautiful day - and we parked easily near the guildhall. Despite working only a fifteen minute walk away, I'd never been here before, and there were a couple of things I wanted to see. Firstly the two fine dragons on the roof (photographed for an update of my Dragons post) and the oval marked in the pavement which marks the extent of the Roman Ampitheatre which stood here. Apparently there are some remains that can be seen inside, but we didn't go in this time. Maybe next time.

We walked up Gresham street, as Suzi wanted to see the Postmans Park -

Against one wall there is a monument to people who courageously lost their lives. Each person is remebered in a plaque fired by Doulton (lambeth).

We then wandered around to Paternoster Square, for an iced coffee, and to try and get some decent pictures of Temple Bar. I got what I wanted in terms of Dragon shots, (again for my Dragons post) but still didn't manage to get a decent overall shot (due to strong shadows).

We then took Dog Car out to the North West - aiming to get to Kensall Green cemetry in time for the 2pm tour. We *just* made it. No picture of the Catacombs tour - appaently its rude, but it was good to see anyway.

The rest of the door was pretty dull, and unfortunatly we failed to see most of the monuments we wanted to.

This is the tomb of the Brunel family - including the grest engineer, Isembard Kingdom Brunel. Its one of the least grand tombs in the place, by then as the guide said, his monuments are obvious, being the great feats of engineering he created in his lifetime that are still with us today.


And just in case you were wondering - this is why the Corrado is called the Dog car.

Dragons

There are a lot of Dragons in London. I mean Loads. They're everywhere - especially in the city. The particulary fine example above is in Leadenhall market, supporting the archway to the Leadenhall street exit. He has a mate at the other end of the arch, and many smaller friends around the market on column tops.



Markets are generally good places for Dragon hunting - this one above is in Smithfield.

Every main entrance to the city is guarded by a pair of dragons (or sometimes a single large one), who are mostly squat silver beasts, detailed in red, and clutching a sheild bearing a red cross. If this is, as I suspect, a reference to St George, then I don't know how they were convinced to show the banner of a man who is most famous, after all, for killing Dragons!


This little fella is on the south west side of London bridge, and is typical of the breed.

The Embankment Dragons are a bit larger an have an inscription that reads (in part):
"These dragons represent a consituient part of the armorial bearings of the City of London"
(Sorry! no photo yet...)

The pair below grace the roof of the Guild hall in the centre of the city.


The temple bar monument marks the place where Wren's magnificent city gate once stood - which is now between St Paul's Cathedral and Paternoster square, and incidently, has some very fine newly carved stone dragons of its own, like the one below.


But back to the Temple Bar Monument - A large, black and serious looking beast marks the entrace to the city from the top of the plinth, who is so large and fearsome that he does it alone. Compare his size to the Mini in the street below - he really is huge.



The Guildhall has some very fine beasts, and here are some lovely examples from inside the main hall:



Its not just statues of Dragons either. This one has graced the shutters of the Wyvern Bindary in Clerkenwell for ages.

Gormlies

The Hayward gallery have an exhibition of Anthony Gormley's work at the moment, and as a part of it, there are 30 sculptures which are casts of the artist's body dotted around the buildings on both sides of waterloo bridge.

According to artsline this exhibition, called Event Horizon is part of Gormley's large scales installation at the Hayward that

"dramatically engage with the gallery’s architecture and directly solicit the viewer’s engagement ... Addressing fundamental questions of the body and space, appearance and disappearance, transformation and transcendence..."

I have absolutely no idea what that means, but I have to admit that the strange Gormlies are pretty cool, and make for some very unusual photographic opportunities.

Walking in London

Although I've never lived in London, I've now been working just outside the City for five years, and as I've always had an interest in the history of places, I've got to know it pretty well. I really enjoy wandering around town with my camera, a Panasonic FZ50.

I'm going to be using this blog to share a few pictures of my travels, just on the off-chance that anyone out there is interested.

This is tower bridge taken from the pavement outside the tower of london. A fairly stock photo, I know, but the light was good and I like the result.